My friend who I’ll be calling Ronny and I have known each other since we were kids. His dad and my mom were dating while we were in kindergarten, though things fell through between them we stayed close. We easily pass as brother and sister, so we just stuck with it for all these years. We both had just wrapped up our senior year in high school and are preparing to move forward with our lives. I got into the university of my dreams so I’m getting things situated to move whereas Ronny is living his best summer.
Ronny is quite the character, tall and lanky with a mess of brown curls atop his head you wouldn’t imagine him to be as extroverted as he is. Where there’s a party you can surely find Ronny with trouble soon to follow. He loves to have a drink or three so he can’t help but show his ass figuratively and literally at times. I’m always the DD and I’m always near to help my “stupid brother” out of trouble.
I had been having headaches over worrying about what would happen to him once I left. He was acting weird since the news of my acceptance and I’ve been hearing through mutual friends that he’d been going out by himself. I was calling and texting him for days without any response. I was about to go over to his place and rip him a new one until he finally decided to call me.
Before he had a chance to speak I furiously snapped into my cell phone, “Where the hell have you been, asshole?” My anger was met with a light chuckle, “Relax, College girl, things are a-okay.” Frustrated, I questioned him again, “Seriously, you disappear for a few days and now you pop up? Screw you.” He let out that cackle that made me even more mad, “My bad, I was just hanging out with Abby.”
At that moment I went through my memory but couldn’t recall the name. “Abby? Who’s that?” I questioned. He paused for a moment, but I could feel him beaming through the phone, “Just a girl I met at Starbucks the other day.” I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, but I was a bit relieved to know that he was still alive. The next few minutes he told me how he met a pretty little blonde while bumping into each other at the coffee shop. One thing led to another and they started hanging out together.
Ronny has never really shown any interest in girls, so I thought it was cute how excited he seemed talking about Abby. “So when do I get to meet the girl?” I asked. His tone turned apprehensive, “Oh. Maybe soon. We’ll see where things go.” My anger faded away as usual with Ronny and I continued to tease him about his new girlfriend. I thought that things were okay, I really wanted things to be fine.
The next few days took a sudden turn for the worse. Ronny would text me every now and then telling me about Abby. Things were a roller coaster for them. one moment things were all lovey dovey then suddenly he tells me she’s creeping him out. When I asked how she was being creepy he’d stop texting for the rest of the day. I thought he was being over dramatic until I got a text message from his number.
Ronny- I’m going to need you to keep away from me..
Um. Excuse me? What’s up?
Ronny- Leave Ronny alone!!
A few minutes later I got a call from Ronny and when I answered what I heard made my heart sink. On the phone all I could hear was a young woman screaming in the background with Ronny yelling back at me, “Fuck! Fuck! Hey, hold on! I’ll explain later!” Things were cluttering and breaking in the background and suddenly there was silence. I realized he had hung up on me. “What the hell did you get yourself into?” I muttered to myself. I paced back and forth, texting him to see if he was okay but there was no response.
I kept myself preoccupied the next couple of days, but I was worried sick over not hearing anything from Ronny. Then one night, I finally got a call from him. I was ready to yell at him but he spoke first, “Hey..” A simple word that carried the weight of someone who hadn’t slept in days. “Wh-what’s wrong? Are you alright?” Ronny gave a deep sigh and chuckled a bit, “I’ve had…one helluva week.”
I wanted to ask him a million questions. What’s been going on? Where have you been? Before I could get anything out of him he told me to come meet him at the park. That was something we did often since we were young, when things were bad we would take a breather at the park’s walking trail. I wanted to brush his offer off, to make sure he was okay but he just said, “Walk with me” So I got into my car and drove..
When I got to the park it was around 11 pm. I couldn’t believe I was out this late to go on a stupid walk but the worry in the pit of my stomach forced me here. I found Ronny sitting at a bunch underneath a lamp post, a white light cascading over him. He looked worse for wear, as he rose to greet me. “Hey, College girl.” he said with a wry smile. When I asked him to finally tell me what was going on he grabbed my hand tightly and led me through the walking trail.
Ronny clicked a flashlight to life as he walked, the air was cold despite it being summer. It’s not unheard of to walk this late at night I suppose, but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. His flashlight barely cut through the darkness and it was so quiet aside our footsteps on the dirt path. His words broke the awkward silence between us, “So things…didn’t work out between me and Abby.” I scoffed, “That’s an understatement. What the hell happened the other day?”
“She was fucking psycho..” he said, his words seemed to trail off a bit. “Abby and I were drinking at her place. Her parents were out of town so it was just us.” Our pace slowed down and he continued, “We were talking about what we were going to do for the future. I told her I wasn’t sure, all I know is this place and you.” He turned to look at me through the corner of his eye.
“Then she wanted to know what we were about, you and I.” He said in a low voice, almost a whisper. I was confused, “We’re just friends, you’re like a brother to me.” I said nervously. He continued forward for a while longer until he spoke again, “I told Abby what was up and she didn’t like the answer.” he explained, “She freaked out and one thing led to another…so she got violent.” I was shocked, I asked if he was okay and he lifted up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal deep scratch marks all over his arms.
“Jesus, Ronny!” I pulled my hand away to examine his arms. He assured me that things were okay and that he had handled the situation. “You really had a rough time…I’m sorry.” I said to him and he held my hand again. “You know…things are going to be really shitty when you leave..” he said sadly, “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you..” I knew my leaving was weighing heavily on his mind, but I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.
“Ronny, you know I love you. Not much would change, I’ll be home to visit.” I told him reassuringly. His grip tightened on my hand and it made me wince a bit. “If you love me, you won’t leave.” He snapped. I was taken aback, “Ronny, please. You’re being weird. What’s going on with you?” I asked. He took a deep breath and shook his head, “Sorry, it’s just…we’ve always been together so you leaving is…” his words trailed off again.
Things were becoming awkward again and he obviously felt that. “Hey, uh…how about a selfie? You know, something before you leave..” he suggested. I laughed and punched his arm, “You idiot. There’s still plenty of time before I go.” He handed me the flashlight and readied his phone for the picture. Ronny wrapped his arm around me and I shone the light towards our faces. We both smiled and he took the picture, the click of the phone echoing around us.
He stepped away, his phone glowing a dull light on his face. For a moment I thought things were back to normal until his facial expression turned…grim. He kept staring at his phone and his eyes were filled with what I could only call terror. I felt like a broken record asking him what was wrong but when he didn’t respond I snatched the phone away from his hand. “NO, DON’T!” He shouted. I looked down onto the phone screen to see our faces…but it wasn’t just that. On the trail it was a few feet away, but there was a silhouette of a girl behind Ronny.
I whipped my head around and there was absolutely nothing behind us. I directed the light to where the figure was, but still…nothing. “Who the fuck was that?” I questioned him. “It’s Abby..” he muttered under his breath. Ronny grabbed me by my wrist and yanked me forward. “Let’s go, don’t turn around…” he whispered. As our footsteps thud on the path I heard another set closing in on us. I wanted to turn around but Ronny hissed, “Just keep forward..”
I was afraid, with each step we took it felt as though she was right behind me. As we started to walk faster and faster I swear I could hear her breathing behind me. Her breath was ragged and I could feel wisps of air hit the back of my neck causing goosebumps to run down my body. Ronny kept his grip tight on my wrist and I prayed that I could keep up.
Our quickened walk soon turned to a full on run, but no matter how fast we were Abby kept close. I could barely breathe, the air was burning inside of my chest. The path ahead of us seemed to stretch infinitely in this darkness. I tried to keep the flashlight’s beam steady ahead of me, but my whole body was trembling. “WHY IS SHE AFTER US??” I shouted out, but Ronny kept facing forward.
We were nearing a turn and our pace wasn’t slowing down. I didn’t know what else to do, but I didn’t want to stop, everything in me was telling me to run. The two of us didn’t turn, we dashed straight and cut through the trees. “Maybe it won’t find us if we hide..” Ronny whispered. His stride didn’t break when he grabbed the flashlight from me and killed the light. Before I knew it we were ducked beside a fallen tree.
I held my free hand over my mouth to avoid making too much noise, but I was already struggling to breathe. I looked over to Ronny, though I could barely see his face, I could see glints of tears on his cheeks. The woods were unbearably quiet and we were in darkness. Soon we heard a twig snap and a rustling of leaves. I wished that it was some animal, in fact the way the noises shot around us it was as if a predator was circling in on its prey.
Was there even a point to us hiding? It was obvious that we were right where she wanted us. The sounds appeared in shorter intervals and I was sure at this point that some beast was on all fours skittering around us. I couldn’t take it anymore so I called out, “Please! Just leave us alone!” Ronny’s death grip on my wrist grew so tight that I was sure that he had snapped it. “What are you doing?” he hissed under his breath, “She’ll find us!”
A sharp scream shattered the quiet void around us and it rang in my ears. I heard Ronny muttering to himself, “She’s not real. She’s not here. She’s not real.” He released my wrist and held his hands on his head. A shred of moonlight cut through the trees and shone on Ronny’s arms. The cuts on his arms opened before my eyes and blood poured out of them. He suddenly stood up and pulled something out of his pocket.
As if the trees opened up the moon became a spotlight for Ronny who stood there brandishing a pocket knife in his hand. “Come out here you bitch!” he shouted. I looked up at Ronny and I barely recognized him. His expression was twisted to that of pure horror as blood and sweat covered his face. A figure stood amongst the woods, a naked young woman with blonde hair, pale skin and bruises that riddled her body.
She crept towards our direction and Ronny swung his knife wildly. “Back the fuck up!” he shouted. Unphased she continued her advance…inch by inch. I couldn’t believe what was happening in front of me, was this girl truly unhinged like Ronny described. The longer I looked at her, the more I noticed a familiarity. This girl’s hair, height, and eyes looked eerily similar to mine.
Ronny then pointed his blade towards me, “It’s all your fault.” he growled, “If you weren’t going to leave I wouldn’t have done this!” Confusion began to meld with my terror as I slowly backed away from him. “What are you saying?” I forced the words from my throat. He took a deep breath to compose himself, “I thought she could replace you, I wanted her to replace you but she just wasn’t the same.” I looked back towards Abby or whatever it was and saw that it’s body was so badly beaten.
Tears began to pour from his eyes, the streams mixing with the crimson splotches of blood on his face. “We were drinking at her place…she asked me how I felt about her and I told her it wouldn’t work out because I was in love with you.” he said. “She told me to leave, but I really…really wanted to work something out. Because if you leave I am going to be all alone.” His words made my heart sink and what he said next broke it.
“I was fucking drunk…I was angry.” his eyes turned to anger towards me. “I hurt her badly and I left for a moment to clear my head. When I came back I saw her with my phone and…” I didn’t want to hear what happened next, but he proceeded to describe the scene. “I got my phone back. I got on top of her and I wrapped my fingers around her neck until she stopped moving.”
I couldn’t hear anymore and I looked over at Abby, “What did you do with her?” I shouted. “I dumped her body out here…late at night. Now here we are.” His whole body was shaking. I looked back into the woods and Abby was gone. The rustling around us continued with fervor as if he were in the center of a cyclone. “This isn’t real! This isn’t real!” he snapped and he lunged on top of me.
“I’ll fucking kill you! If you’re not going to stay, what’s the point?” he screamed at the top of his lungs. He pressed his weight on top of me and I readied his knife. I slapped, punched and scratched his arms away. I was covered in his blood and I tasted the sickly metallic taste of it on my lips. “We’ve always been together. I’ve always loved you and you think you can just leave?” he screamed again. He stabbed at me and I brought my hands up in a futile attempt to protect myself.
I screamed, I’ve never screamed like that in my entire life as his knife pierced straight through the palm of my right hand. Ronny must’ve surprised himself, he loosened his grip and I was able to pull his knife away from him. Then he clasped his fingers around my neck and squeezed. I could feel my life drain out of me and as I looked upon his crazed face, right behind him I saw Abby. A glimpse of what would happen to me, a young girl whose life would be snuffed out.
I was hurting, pain was going through my entire being and that made my hand burn. I lifted my hands above my head and pulled the knife out of my right palm. That knife, that little blade that was stained with my blood was now mine to use. In my left hand I swiped the blade and it cut clean over his right eye. Ronny hopped off of me and he was reeling in pain on the forest floor.
He let out a wail and cursed at me, calling me things that I never imagined him saying to me. I didn’t waste a second as I ran away from him, away from his screaming and eventually I found myself back on the walking trail. A summer night and I was shaking from a cold I’ve never felt in my entire life. I turned around to see if Ronny had followed me but I was met with the same dead silence when we first arrived here.
A million things were running through my brain, but the only rational thing I could think of was to call the police as I ran back to my car. One of the most horrifying things was just sitting in my car, it took twenty minutes for the cops to come. In that time I was left in an eternity of waiting for Ronny to get to me. I stared at that damn trail just waiting for him to come through but he never did. That was in fact the last time I saw Ronny.
It took the police an hour or so to scour the area to look for him but eventually they found him deep within the woods.The police were just baffled at what they found and no matter what I told them they just couldn’t believe me. The reason why Ronny never came after me was because Abby, her rotting corpse was clenched at his ankle. He had cuts all over his body, even underneath his clothes he had deep gashes. Ronny had bled out that night and Abby’s nails were covered in his blood.